American workers are playing a risky game, threatening their bosses with something utterly morally abhorrent - that they will quit if the compensation for the labor they are being paid for is not sufficient, and even going as far as getting better offers and demanding their
One of the many salient, data-backed points Christopher R. Martin makes in his excellent book "No Longer Newsworthy: How the Mainstream Media Abandoned the Working Class" is that white collar workers who attain a certain amount of education (ie graduate degrees) stop seeing themselves as "working class" because isn't that masters degree a ticket out of being *one of them*?
I raise that here because, 1) it feels relevant to your disclaimer at the end and 2) it's another one of these pro-exploitation canards oligarchical capitalism has slowly and intentionally introduced into the conversational air supply to the point that we all just accept that "white collar" ≠ "working class" and therefore requires a separate conversation. It's all the same conversation. You only have to look at what's happening at the lower rungs of media to see how white-collar workers are being exploited by the paternalistic rich. As a society we've drunk so deep from the well of propaganda about "grit" and "rugged individualism" and "scarcity" that we've forgotten that work is work is work, and whatever this economic model is (because it sure ain't market-based capitalism) will exploit everyone in the labor class, regardless of the job. Because you're not a person in a shareholder-primacy economy; you're a line-item cost dragging down profits.
Lol, those Twitters drove the point home perfectly.
This time around, the Fed isn't even using 'inflation' exclusively. Powell et al are actually using the phrase 'wage inflation', cause that's what they're really worried about. Gotta get people back to wage-slave levels.
But I also have to wonder about some places in Asia and Latin America and if any of this extends there. Places where labor is so ridiculously cheap, a nice hotel will even provide you with a personal butler to iron your shirts. (As someone who was once given a customary "limit" of five ironed shirts per day, these are the questions I have to ask.)
I’m not entirely sure of your conclusion that it’s mainly about pay. My doubts started here: “Cheap labor has always been viewed as disposable, but the pandemic showed blue-collar workers that corporations extended this flippancy to their lives.” I think this statement might be even truer of “pink-collar” jobs. I’m thinking especially of the hospital workers — mainly women — who had concerns about getting vaccinated and ended up getting fired over it. The key thing to thread whole debacle was how unwilling hospital management was to talk to their workers either before or after setting the mandate. That feels like it is part of the picture, along with Boomers and some Gen X just hanging it up. That says to me that it’s more complicated than just pay.
Pay is certainly a part of it. And the great thing about a free market is that wages adjust upwards when the supply of labor is insufficient to the demand. Well run companies recognize that this is just another part of the enrollment in which you operate — pay competitively or lose your best people. I guess investors and executives can whine about it, just like they do about the market price of their inputs or outputs. But that isn’t really going to get anywhere and I’ve never personally seen this — it’s always been something more like “this is a thing we have to adapt to.”
And some of it is purely price. I’ve been trying to get contractors to work on my garage for months, but my project is just too small to be worth their time when the market is as tight was it is right now. I think they don’t want to bid it at the price that would make it bring them the equivalent profit because they worry about getting a reputation for being overpriced. So I think that’s a situation that says it is mainly about pay., if in a twisted way. We won’t have an ongoing relationship, so it’s not like the hospital workers scenario.
But it feels like some of your other statements are closer to the mark in some ways when it comes to regular jobs. It feels like people are reacting to their perception of a lack of respect. How much you get paid for your time can certainly feel like an indication of respect. But this notion covers a lot of other things, like sending down a diktat that all nurses must be vaccinated, no consultation ahead of time and no discussion afterwards. And I think a caricature of that is what you are pillorying.
If so, this wannabe rich executive agrees with you.
Another EZ all time classic
One of the many salient, data-backed points Christopher R. Martin makes in his excellent book "No Longer Newsworthy: How the Mainstream Media Abandoned the Working Class" is that white collar workers who attain a certain amount of education (ie graduate degrees) stop seeing themselves as "working class" because isn't that masters degree a ticket out of being *one of them*?
I raise that here because, 1) it feels relevant to your disclaimer at the end and 2) it's another one of these pro-exploitation canards oligarchical capitalism has slowly and intentionally introduced into the conversational air supply to the point that we all just accept that "white collar" ≠ "working class" and therefore requires a separate conversation. It's all the same conversation. You only have to look at what's happening at the lower rungs of media to see how white-collar workers are being exploited by the paternalistic rich. As a society we've drunk so deep from the well of propaganda about "grit" and "rugged individualism" and "scarcity" that we've forgotten that work is work is work, and whatever this economic model is (because it sure ain't market-based capitalism) will exploit everyone in the labor class, regardless of the job. Because you're not a person in a shareholder-primacy economy; you're a line-item cost dragging down profits.
*norma-rae-union.gif*
👏🏻
Lol, those Twitters drove the point home perfectly.
This time around, the Fed isn't even using 'inflation' exclusively. Powell et al are actually using the phrase 'wage inflation', cause that's what they're really worried about. Gotta get people back to wage-slave levels.
Totally spot on.
But I also have to wonder about some places in Asia and Latin America and if any of this extends there. Places where labor is so ridiculously cheap, a nice hotel will even provide you with a personal butler to iron your shirts. (As someone who was once given a customary "limit" of five ironed shirts per day, these are the questions I have to ask.)
I loved the start of this one.
I’m not entirely sure of your conclusion that it’s mainly about pay. My doubts started here: “Cheap labor has always been viewed as disposable, but the pandemic showed blue-collar workers that corporations extended this flippancy to their lives.” I think this statement might be even truer of “pink-collar” jobs. I’m thinking especially of the hospital workers — mainly women — who had concerns about getting vaccinated and ended up getting fired over it. The key thing to thread whole debacle was how unwilling hospital management was to talk to their workers either before or after setting the mandate. That feels like it is part of the picture, along with Boomers and some Gen X just hanging it up. That says to me that it’s more complicated than just pay.
Pay is certainly a part of it. And the great thing about a free market is that wages adjust upwards when the supply of labor is insufficient to the demand. Well run companies recognize that this is just another part of the enrollment in which you operate — pay competitively or lose your best people. I guess investors and executives can whine about it, just like they do about the market price of their inputs or outputs. But that isn’t really going to get anywhere and I’ve never personally seen this — it’s always been something more like “this is a thing we have to adapt to.”
And some of it is purely price. I’ve been trying to get contractors to work on my garage for months, but my project is just too small to be worth their time when the market is as tight was it is right now. I think they don’t want to bid it at the price that would make it bring them the equivalent profit because they worry about getting a reputation for being overpriced. So I think that’s a situation that says it is mainly about pay., if in a twisted way. We won’t have an ongoing relationship, so it’s not like the hospital workers scenario.
But it feels like some of your other statements are closer to the mark in some ways when it comes to regular jobs. It feels like people are reacting to their perception of a lack of respect. How much you get paid for your time can certainly feel like an indication of respect. But this notion covers a lot of other things, like sending down a diktat that all nurses must be vaccinated, no consultation ahead of time and no discussion afterwards. And I think a caricature of that is what you are pillorying.
If so, this wannabe rich executive agrees with you.